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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

A Reckless and stupid Trumpster and a Feckless media

The Trumpster accused Obama of not being willing to talk about "Islamic Extremism" in language that made Darth Cheney and Padowan George W. Bush's tirades seem almost intelligent and gentle. Almost accusing Obama of Treason for not using the term! The Moron said it in multiple speeches and even a tweet!

Obama explains why The Trumpster is reckless and the Feckless media calls his comments a Tirade!

Obama Explains his strategy

And the President responded rationally

"For a while now, the main contribution of some of my friends on the other side of the aisle have made in the fight against ISIL is to criticize this administration and me for not using the phrase “radical Islam.” That’s the key, they tell us -- we can’t beat ISIL unless we call them “radical Islamists.”" [White House Transcript]

He went on to explain:

"What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a political distraction. Since before I was President, I’ve been clear about how extremist groups have perverted Islam to justify terrorism. As President, I have repeatedly called on our Muslim friends and allies at home and around the world to work with us to reject this twisted interpretation of one of the world’s great religions." [White House Transcript]

Anyone who understands Islam knows that "In fact, Islam forbids the taking of any human life except for a just cause under the law" [Islam on Killing]. It is easier to get help on the "war on terror" if it is law enforcement against unjust war, then if the words "Islamic Extremism" are used in a way that claims that our efforts are a war on Islam.

Though Obama is too diplomatic to say they are anything like Trump. Yet Trump's response to the wannabe terrorism of ISIL and Islamic extremists is to call for the arming of Americans and repressive measures against Innocent muslims. Obama suggests the contrary:

"here at home, if we really want to help law enforcement protect Americans from homegrown extremists, the kind of tragedies that occurred at San Bernardino and that now have occurred in Orlando, there is a meaningful way to do that. We have to make it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on weapons of war that let them kill dozens of innocents." [White House Transcript]

Fighting extremism when it comes to religious and national fear and anger requires shifting the fight from one based on collective punishment and fear to one based on collaboration with good people and a law enforcement approach.

And he notes the importance of understanding the religious argument and not falling into the radicalization trap ourselves:

"Groups like ISIL and al Qaeda want to make this war a war between Islam and America, or between Islam and the West. They want to claim that they are the true leaders of over a billion Muslims around the world who reject their crazy notions. They want us to validate them by implying that they speak for those billion-plus people; that they speak for Islam. That’s their propaganda. That's how they recruit. And if we fall into the trap of painting all Muslims with a broad brush and imply that we are at war with an entire religion -- then we’re doing the terrorists' work for them."

On the contrary, what Trump's policy would do is to embolden the Salafists who want to see their attacks as part of a war. Because Muslims, like Christians and Jews -- and most other religions -- justify killing in self defense and during war [as collective self defense]. We, ourselves wouldn't be able to justify our foreign adventures if we didn't portray them as self defense. Trump's language is aimed at demolishing this defense. Obama goes on to explain how we are waging war on ISIL, precisely because they are waging war on civilians without just cause. Like Trump their:

"true nature has been revealed: These are not religious warriors, they are thugs and they are thieves." [White House Transcript]

The ignorant And Feckless Press calls this a Tirade

CNN, MSNBC reacted by painting Obama's speech last night as a "tirade" against Donald Trump. When Hillary said similar things in her own speech, some newsreader on MSNBC accusing Obama and Hillary of reading from the same script!

These people in the press are either too stupid, too scared or too partisan to admit:

"we are now seeing how dangerous this kind of mindset and this kind of thinking can be. We're starting to see where this kind of rhetoric and loose talk and sloppiness about who exactly we're fighting, where this can lead us. We now have proposals from the presumptive Republican nominee for President of the United States to bar all Muslims from emigrating to America. We hear language that singles out immigrants and suggests that entire religious communities are complicit in violence." [White House Transcript]

Either the Media doesn't get it, or they are Scared of Trump

The media doesn't get Trump or Democracy anymore. They paint Obama's comments as a "tirade" rather than report them. They simply don't understand how stupid, reckless and demagogic what this Trumpster is doing. But here is what Obama said:

"...organizations like ISIL or organizations like al Qaeda, or those who have perverted Islam and created these radical, nihilistic, vicious organizations, one of the groups that they target are gays and lesbians because they believe that they do not abide by their attitudes towards sexuality." White House | [CNN audio only]

And the same can be said about radical neo-Christian movements. This shooter could just as easily have been a Trump Supporter. When Obama says this "we have self-radicalized individuals in this country, then they are going to be very difficult oftentimes to find ahead of time." He could just as easily be talking about radical Trump Supporters or other neo-Christian radicals. Trump is every bit as much an extremist as Osama Bin Laden. Or more precisely he's an extremist in the Dick Cheney model. Ready for a return of Water Boarding? Indefinite detentions?

Politifact claimed to analyze Trump and Obama's claims and counter claims. But wrote a mushy article that straddles and equivocates on the issue while admitting that the purpose of Trumps attacks is:

Fear Mongering on Muslims coming to this Country or Born here!

Trump is making reckless and inflammatory statements about immigration in general. He is demagoguing on fears of strangers from Latin America, Asia and now the Islamic world. But in this case he's trying to resurrect and revive the Zombie theories of the "War on Terrorism" and the "one percent solution" that Dick Cheney applied to Muslims after 9/11. Trump is claiming we are:

Trump: "We are importing Radical Islamic Terrorism into the West through a failed immigration system —and through an intelligence community held back by our president. Even our own FBI Director has admitted that we cannot effectively check the backgrounds of the people we are letting into America."

He makes this claim referring to an incident involving a young man who was born in this country and is a citizen of this country by birth. (Not that Trump accepts the 14th amendment). And Trump, blowing up this fear and targeting muslims says:

"When I am elected, I will suspend immigration from areas of the world when there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies, until we understand how to end these threats." [Fact Checking]

Resurrecting the One Percent Doctrine

Trump is resurrecting Dick Cheney's "one percent doctrine. Cheney described it to Ron Suskind this way:

"Even if there's just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty. It's not about 'our analysis,' as Cheney said. It's about 'our response.' … Justified or not, fact-based or not, 'our response' is what matters. As to 'evidence,' the bar was set so low that the word itself almost didn't apply." Suskind

All we need is another fearless leader liar to claim that we are the ones under threat:

Cheney: “after this conflict began nearly five years ago, with a merciless attack on this very city, President Bush told Congress and the country that we were in a different kind of struggle. He said we “should not expect one battle, but rather a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we’ve ever seen.” This war may, he said, “include dramatic strikes, visible on television and covert operations, secret even in success.” [Cheney]

We are still trying to wind up this last Eternal War. Do we really need a Trumpster blowing things up even more? We need to remember FDR's famous quote "The only thing we need to fear is fear itself" because that is what Trump is doing with his bullying and fear-mongering.

"If a president sought to institute an immigration ban based on religion, it would be challenged and could be struck down by the Supreme Court."

But we've already been through this drill in our bait and switch invasion of Afghanistan and our fraudulent war on Iraq. If the President is determined enough and can pack the court with fearful or authoritarian judges like Kennedy, the late Scalia, Thomas and Roberts -- he can get away with almost anything. We've been through this drill before, and if elected Donald Trump will be replacing a number of SCOTUS justices and maybe changing the rulings of the court.

We've already had incidents where the intelligence community was unleashed on the "one percent" principle/" [Cheney] When that happens everything being said by Fact Check becomes irrelevant! And folks can't even talk about it or they'll get treated as members of the class of people who "might," "one day," maybe do something illegal, [Like protest]. The Executive has tremendous power to ignore the constitution and find ways to avoid their infringements on it's principles from even reaching the courts! And a Trump Presidency might well lock up the press too. I think they are terrified of Trump's terrorism. Trump will attack media, prosecutors prosecuting him, judges trying cases where he's being prosecuted! We don't need to fear him if we understand him, fight him strategically and defeat him. But if he gets power, he's already said what he's going to do.

Enough for this post! Maybe the media is just Feckless.

Lawrence O'Donnell last Word on the subject

He noted on 6/14/2016 that the Republicans have never approved the Treasury Under-secretary, or provided an alternative person, with the means to fully cut off ISIL Funds. The Trumpeters won't talk about that, because their real function for blocking these jobs is to give ammunition to attacks on the administration by sabotaging it. O'Donnell also notes that the treasure of Trumps' superpack has only been convicted of fraud once, and would likely be the man that Trump would put in charge of stopping funds going to ISIL. Steve Hoffenberg was convicted of 460 million of worth of fraud in 1995. And now is one of Trump's surrogates. O'Donnell notes that the GOP likes to talk tough while enabling terrorism in little ways like enabling the terrorists to spend money on terrorism. O'Donnell pointed out that the Orlando Shooter's parents came to this country in the 1980s and he was born here. So when Trump says "we don't know what we are doing" --> it truly is that "three fingered thing." In fact both the Shooter and Trump were born in Queens of immigrant parents. But people like donald Trump have one ear and two mouths and they seem to keep that one ear with cotton stuffed in it. We talk about not letting guns fall in the wrong hand and Trump and the dog-people listening to his dog whistles say we want to repeal the second amendment. Some of us do, but not me, Hillary or most folks I know. They need this fear that somehow we are going to take away their sex toys.